Taking Advantage of ALL formats

[jerryflattum]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Hello again!

As to ebook creation, you might also want to visit the calibre forums on this site. Calibre is described as library management software, but it is much more. It can transform documents in formats such as PDF, .doc, .html, and other formats into formats that can be read by most ereaders such as .mobi for the Kindle, .epub for Nooks, Sonys, and other readers, and more. It's a free download, and the creator of the software, Kovid Goyal, is a MobileRead member who is very approachable and more than willing to answer questions about calibre.

I honestly cannot believe what you have turned me on to. And for God's sake, there's even a forum! You have no idea how happy this makes me. So, how does it feel to change someone's life for the better? And what's so funny is that you provided this info as if you were merely talking about the weather, like it's no big deal.

OK, I'll stop gushing.

In only a few short hours of entering my post in the forum I have received 2 major applications that are just mind boggling when it comes to the world of ebooks.

Somehow I've got to document what's happening here and write about it in my blogs. Hell, I might even write an eBook, ha! How I was led to MobileRead, and how MobileRead responded to my needs.

I don't understand how the creator of Calibre can give it away for free. He does ask for donations and I'm going to work something out.

I think this is critical to the entire eBook game, is that just about anything you want to do, there is a free application that will help you do it.

Meanwhile designers, services, etc., are charging 100s if not 1000s to do what Calibre and so many other applications do. There's nothing secretive about it. It's not underhanded. It's just unbelievable, that's all.

Thank you so much.

[jerryflattum]

Originally Posted by LCF

Well, starting small:

If you want a decent graphic quality form .doc(x) to .pdf you have to:

• 1. Change the printing resolution of your pdf printer (bullzip pdf printer for example) to at least 1200 dpi.
• 2. Make the final version of the book.
• 3. Create a copy and open it.
• 4. STOP automatic saves every x minutes.
• 5. Replace all of the graphics with the original files (in mso 2007/2010 juts right click and choose "change picture". Do NOT save.
• 6. Print the file.
• 7. If you want to be loved: make a special PDF edition with very big text, so the page looks good on a 5" or 6" device.

At least that's how I had to do it. If anyone knows a faster way I will be happy to be corrected.

LCF: I think you provided some great info only it's a bit over my head. I didn't even know there was a dedicated PDF printer, or, do you mean any printer?

Anyway, someone else suggested the Calibre system and without knowing a thing yet other than having watched the demo video, it looks like Calibre can do just about anything I (you/we) want to do with ebooks.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by jerryflattum

Meanwhile designers, services, etc., are charging 100s if not 1000s to do what Calibre and so many other applications do.

I have here Adobe Photoshop CS5. Do you think the difference between me and some random dude off the street, when it comes to website design, is because of Photoshop?

It isn't. I can do more with MS Paint than a novice can do with Photoshop. I can do more with Notepad than someone who thinks website design is all about picking the right WordPress template can do with Dreamweaver. I don't charge for doing what Dreamweaver does; I charge for knowing what to do.

And, likewise, that Super Bowl commercial crew I referred to in my last post could undoubtedly make a better commercial with my little Flip camcorder than I could make with with their tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear. They know how it's supposed to work; they've spent years learning that. I don't. And by the time I learned, they would have learned even more. If you want a commercial made, hire them. They cost more per hour than someone with a pocket camcorder, even if you provide the equipment. They're charging for their expertise.

Calibre is awesome. (by the way, don't "work something out"; send Kovid a donation, for the love of Mike) Sigil (next forum down) is pretty cool, too. But all the programs in the world can't give you knowledge you don't have. There's only one way to get that, and it isn't easy.

P.S.

As proof that the tools are trivial compared to the expertise, it was just pointed out to me that Einstein used a piece of chalk and a blackboard.

Tools are amplifiers.

[jerryflattum]

Originally Posted by queentess

I mean if you post a .doc somewhere, I won't be downloading it. I have no clue what's the best format to start from.

I took a brief look at FastPencil and didn't notice as specific mention of blogs. It definitely handles epublishing. And more importantly, it's using a graphic from one of my favorite online graphic artists.



Mobipocket is the primary Kindle format. ePub format will cover just about anything else. You might want to take a look at Sigil


Saying "I don't understand what you're saying" isn't offensive, it's asking for clarification. And quite frankly, I also had no idea what you were saying, so I picked a couple of points to respond to. It's clear you have grand ideas, but they're not very specific.
That must be marketing speak, because it doesn't mean anything to me. What does your portal do? What do you sell? What are your ebooks about? What is a "virtual world"? It just seems like you're all over the place.


Translation: You want help, but you're not sure with what, you want it to be professional, and you're not willing to pay very much.


Wow. Just wow. Sorry I tried to help. I'll keep my opinions to myself, even though you were asking for help.

Queentess: Your input is just remarkable and invaluable. I certainly meant not to offend you in anyway. The comment that irked me was by someone else. If you were defending that person that makes you even more honorable.

Listen, there are 2 things involved in what I'm doing/trying to do: I'm going to stumble all over the place. And, as a writer, if there's one thing I know about it's word choice.

I knew my initial post was going to leave much room for confusion. Everything I'm doing is so new.

You, and maybe many others involved here on MobileRead seem to be somewhat cool about all these different kinds of applications but for me I am overwhelmed.

In keeping with that, please don't make me feel bad about having a low budget and trying to do "big" things for free. My God, I wouldn't have thought that way if it wasn't for the fact that everyday I'm discovering some new application for free, an application that does amazing things. Hell, it happened here in the forum 3 times: Calibre, the Google Projects site you sent me to, and the Vook application. I'm not sure if Vook is free but damn, the other two applications are.

And I'm just gettin' warmed up!

What I meant by opinions was that, of course, opinions are important. But sometimes, as in other forums, people will respond with, "What do you want to do that for," or "Who cares," or "Why do you want to make a movie online," or something similar. This just isn't helpful.

How you have responded is extremely helpful.

And let me tell you, I wish to God I DID have a bigger budget because you deserve to get paid. That's what makes a forum like this so amazing is the exchange of information without having to pay for it. You, and so many others clearly could make a living as consultants.

So, again, I apologize if I offended anyone. Certainly not my intentions.

Thank you again so much.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by jerryflattum

What I meant by opinions was that, of course, opinions are important. But sometimes, as in other forums, people will respond with, "What do you want to do that for," or "Who cares," or "Why do you want to make a movie online," or something similar. This just isn't helpful.

Those aren't just opinions though, as WorldWalker says, you really need to know why you're doing something before you can figure out how to go about it. And if you can figure out how to make money from it, great! But what are you going to do that's different than everything else out there? How are you going to pull those people to your website? These are very important questions that need to be answered before you can move on to the next stage with any sort of cohesive plan. Just converting some docs into mobi or epub isn't going to get you an automatic audience.

[Worldwalker]

I wasn't kidding about my reading list. Go to Amazon, order those books, and when they arrive, set aside several days to read them. You need to read those books. They're not just about websites, either; in fact, The Design of Everyday Things was first published in 1988, before there was a Web. Those books are about information, and about what you do with it, which is the essence of what you're doing.

I am a consultant, by the way. That's what a website designer is. Not some kind of typist.

As for your comments about people getting paid, I'd like to add another book to my list:

Circus World, by Barry Longyear.

That one's fiction. SF, to be exact. It's not very big, compared to more recent novels, and it's a very good read. Some people clearly see it as an ideal; I see it as a warning.

[jerryflattum]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

The big question with any endeavor like this is one of the ones I ask my website clients: Why would someone want to use this?

That's the first thing you have to figure out: what is there that you have that Vince Flanders calls "heroin content" -- something so important to me, or any other random user, that we'll take time away from the million and nine other things we need to do today to go do your thing. You have to figure out if you indeed have that content -- which can be hard because you're so close to it -- and if so, exactly what it is, how to present it so that the people who want it can make use of it, and how to let those people know that it's there for their use. Getting them to pay you for it, I should mention, adds another hurdle.

As Queentess said, if you have your ebooks available as .epub (Sony, nook, Kobo, miscellaneous devices) and .mobi (Kindle) you'll cover the majority of dedicated ebook readers and a lot of the alternate devices, including computers.



Please go tell the Kindle-only people this. They don't seem to get that, and they should.



Step 1: See above. See the part about "heroin content" and about what not just you but your prospective users would want to make an effort for.

Step 2: See Step 1.

I can't emphasize this enough, because I've seen so many people try and fail: You need to have a reason for people to do what you want them to do -- in this case, paying you for your stuff. Every potential user asks the exact same question: What's in it for me? You want their money and their time. You're competing with the whole rest of the world, a fair percentage of which also wants their money or their time or both. You need a reason for people to read one of your blog posts rather than a post on MobileRead, or anywhere else. They're already doing something else; you need to give them one damn good reason to stop doing something else, even before you can start getting them to do what you want.

What is in it for me? What can you give me that I can't get somewhere else? Why are you so special?

If you can't give me a really impressive answer to that, and can't provide me with a compelling reason to override my basic inertia and time-starvation and go to your website, read your blog, and buy your books, etc., instead of going to MobileRead, reading Lum's blog, and buying Tim Myers' books, you've lost me before you started. Now multiple me by your entire target market.



A word processor's proprietary format is not a document interchange format. First mistake right there. So for starters, you should look at what formats you want to support (see above). The one your word processor uses (which is not the same as the one my word processor uses, for example) is not one of those.



Frankly, I don't think you're ready for this.

I'm not trying to be insulting here, just telling the truth: the kind of project you're trying to do requires a fairly comprehensive set of skills for the things you need to get done. They're skills that you, or someone on your team, has to have. You can't try to find them after the fact; you need them to get started. You're trying to do very advanced things, but asking MobileRead very basic questions. You're not at the point yet where you could even understand the advanced questions or their answers, and you needed to be at that point before you started.

You still have a problem with the basics. Your lead article, for instance, has a major typographic error in its title and headline. I'm not even going to start on your website; if you want to pay me to do that (it's what I do) PM me and we'll talk. You need a professional, though, whoever it might be. I looked at a couple of stories and found errors, obvious errors, that Should Not Be. If you're asking people to give you money, you need to look professional -- if anything, even more professional than the big names. Right now, you look like a guy who knows how to use WordPress. There are lots of them out there, and not many people paying them for content. Before you can do anything else, you need to elevate yourself above them.



This is why I'm saying you're putting the cart before the horse. Knowing how ecommerce works, and how to go about using it, is a prerequisite for setting up an ecommerce site. Trying to do otherwise is like saying you want to be a hotshot Formula 1 driver, and you'll worry about the "learning to drive" part later on.



That money will get you more than their software and their keyboards: that money will get you their knowledge. It's knowledge you need, and you have to either have it yourself, have employees/partners who have it, or hire it in from a consultant (a design firm, in this case). You need that knowledge one way or another, and asking questions on MobileRead will not get you the kind of comprehensive answers you need.



Applications are easy. Knowing what to do with them is hard.

I own a pocket camcorder (one of the early Flips, to be precise). Would you consider me qualified to produce a Super Bowl commercial for you?

Why not? The people who make those multi-million-dollar spots have cameras, I have a camera, what's the difference?

Obviously there's a difference, and obviously that difference is why they spend millions on their scriptwriters, their actors, their photographers, their locations, their CGI artists, and all the rest, for a 30-second commercial, instead of a random MobileRead poster and a pocket camera. You could give me one of the fancy video cameras, or a whole set of them and a crew to boot, and I'm still not going to produce anything better than what you see on local TV for Joe's Used Cars, because my expertise is in other areas. The best camera in the world couldn't do the job for me; I have to know exactly what I want to do, and why, and how to do it with that camera.

While you're not making a Super Bowl commercial (yet), you are trying to present a professional image. Unless you know in detail the capabilities of the programs you're using, and have a realistic idea of your own capabilities, and stay within both of those, it's not going to work. Tools are amplifiers, and programs are tools. Amplified crap is still crap. So it's not the programs that you have to worry about, it's the people using them.

An expert has spent years learning not just how to use their tools, but when and why to use their tools. Going back to my commercial example, with a smart enough camera and ten minutes to read the manual, I could shoot video of exactly what I wanted, and with suitable computer power, edit it up to look exactly the way I want. Trust me, you still don't want to put that on at halftime, even for your local high school team. I don't know how to get viewers to respond to such an ad, not in the way that the people who do it for a living do. It probably wouldn't even get any business for Joe. The best tools in the world would still just amplify crap.

You need to either have, hire, or rent expertise. There is no way around it.



How will it be better than Second Life?



Why?



There's a program for that. It's called PowerPoint.

Bad PowerPoint presentations are the plague of our time, too, but that's another rant entirely. Again, there are questions to ask yourself. One of these is "why isn't everyone doing it?" While it's possible that you're the first person to think of such a groundbreaking idea (note: you're not) it's also possible that other people have tried it and failed. Again, it's possible that those people failed because they didn't know how to implement it, but it's also possible (and IMO, far more likely) that they failed because there was no market.

For this idea to be anything more than a PowerPoint presentation -- in other words, anything more than an illustrated book -- the graphics aspect is going to have to be on a par with a modern movie. Consider a cut scene from a AAA video game. Consider the team of artists and animators who create it. Consider the server farm that renders it. Now consider that you need one of those for every page of your book. In a world with Age of Conan, people are not going to pay you for Wolfenstein 3D. And even Wolfie took a team.



Step 1: You need a team of people dedicated to this project who have the expertise that you lack. Nobody is an expert in everything, and your project is dependent on several kinds of expertise that you don't have. You need it. You are not going to succeed without it.



I'm reminded of the days when I was writing and selling software, and people would come up to me at conventions and say "I have this great idea! How about I tell you the idea, and you write the program, and we split the money?" (this happens a lot to fiction writers, too) They were always disappointed by my reply: "How about you keep the idea, and you write the program, and you keep all the money?"

Getting ideas is never the hard part. Time to implement the ideas, and making the ideas pay, those are the hard parts. I never had a shortage of ideas for software; I have no shortage of ideas for writing now. Ideas weren't the problem. Time to implement those ideas, a market for that implementation, and a way to monetize it, that has always been the problem. And, frankly, unless you can find someone who's independently wealthy and wants to sign on with you for a lark, you're unlikely to get the people with the kind of expertise that you need for the kind of budget you have.

I will recommend a few useful books to you. If you haven't read these, you need to read them now.

The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman.
Don't Make Me Think!, by Steve Krug.
Web Pages That Suck and Son of Web Pages That Suck, by Vincent Flanders.
Homepage Usability, by Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir.

They are neither large nor optional.

Worldwalker:

One thing I need to learn is how you people select a specific block of text to quote, rather than quoting the entire post. But, in your case, you provided so much info that I went ahead and included your entire post.

Your comments are sort of close to brilliant, but I won't say that because if I inflate your ego you might not help me, ha!

I've written a website development plan. Condensing that into a forum post entry is a challenge. Hell, I didn't even know if anyone would respond much less the kinds of responses I got so far. Someone suggested trying MobileRead and here I am.

I could rip my site apart far more than any criticism you offered, and I know you held back considerably. But in deference to myself, I did something very smart: I came to MobileRead and said, "Here's what I got, here's what I want to do, whadda ya think?" And lo and behold, it worked.

Do you not think I know what kind of team I need? There is a Business note in the documentation I keep on the development of my business and the website that lists the team I need to do what I need to do.

I received one estimate from Weymouth, and they glibly quoted me a price of 60K-100K. Given the quote had a 40K buffer, I knew they were being flippant.

Yes, this is very much a game of "do-it-yourself" now because there IS no budget to hire Steven Speilberg. I'm an "Indie" songwriter. Should I quit because I can't get signed to a major label?

I have a page on my site "Seeking Investor." I'm exploring RocketHub, IndieGogo, Kickstarter, FundingPost and every other way there is to find investors. Just last week I started writing a business plan.

I know fully well what I'm up against.

Now, back to you. I need someone like you, clearly. But I can't afford you! But, I was lucky enough to get some incredible advice from you by opening myself up in this forum.

I'm not the least bit concerned about competition. If I was, I'd never have written a song or an eBook and I'd just go crawl into a hole knowing how "big" the competition is. Competition is an obstacle and a challenge, not a reason to quit.

How to monetize what I'm doing: Isn't this the quest of nearly every blogger, website owner, writer, artist and marketer in cyberspace?

One thing is for sure, the Internet, in spite of its current development, is truly uncharted territory. What seems to be an insurmountable obstacle one day is answered by a plug-and-play application the next.

You compared the use of a digital camera to the equipment used in making a 30 sec Super Bowl commercial. I work in music and film. I know how much Titanic cost...and I'm not trying to make Titanic with a digital camera.

However, Justin Beiber--whether you like him or not--launched his mega-star career by uploading a cheezy home-made video on You Tube. It pissed a lot of people off.

Marketers and advertisers are learning that social media has it's own set of rules, and yes, you can become a millionaire selling pet rocks.

I'm not trying to get over. I wouldn't do what Justin Beiber did. However, I will upload a video shot on my Canon digital camera to the sites I mentioned that network artists and startups with investors. I'll probably upload it to my site. Do I know it wasn't produced by Dreamworks and directed by James Cameron?

6 months ago I didn't even know you could by a Wordpress theme. I installed it, set things up with Hostgator, hired a Wordpress expert, and after I could no longer afford his fees, started doing things myself.

Hack job? No shit. But, my site is experimental. Every little thing I try I learn from. I actually figured out how to embed Google Analytics code on my home page. I installed a bunch of other widgets and I have a slew of plugins lying dormant because I don't know how to configure them.

Now, suddenly, over night, MobileRead provides me with Calibre, Vook and Mobipocket.com. That's one hell of a start in asking the questions I asked about ebook conversion.

One of my blogs is called "Solutions Now." The tag line for the blog is "Every Conflict Has A Solution." As trite as that might sound in this context, that tag line is my guiding principle. Whatever mess my website is in...there's a solution.

No, I can't say I know exactly what I'm doing, because what I'm doing is very much an act of exploration and discovery. I'm in a lab. I'm experimenting. My colleagues will laugh at me. My wife will divorce me. But I keep looking through that microscope because I know the answer is there--I just have to find it.

Speaking of "scope", let me explain what the "Entertainment Cyberscope" is and what I mean by converting "portal" into "virtual world."

The Entertainment Cyberscope (EC) was born as an offshoot from a column I wrote for a well known songwriting website. Instead of writing an article, I decided to create a portal for all things entertainment.

After I stopped writing as a columnist, I decided to recreate the EC on my site and it's now taken on a life of its own.

I'm building it using Pages and sub-pages and man it doesn't get any clumsier than that. So, the first thing I realized was I needed a database solution.

I then realized that the portal could be much more than just a comprehensive info source. I became an affiliate of zZounds, one of the largest retailers for music equipment online. I swapped a few emails with them asking them about what kinds of solutions there might be in linking all the listings I have (and will have) in the EC with all the manufacturers they feature on their site.

I believe the EC has tremendous advertising/affiliate potential. Yes, I have to prove it...and I will.

Being a lover of movies and online graphics, after discovering "virtual worlds"--like 2nd Life--I realized there were opportunities now to do much more with the "portal" concept.

I discovered an article on the SAP Design Guild website, "Portal Design vs. Website Design." SAP, as I'm sure you know far more than me, offers design and business solutions for global conglomerates. Man, talk about being out of my league! One rep from SAP told me they deal only with companies capitalized in the multi-millions if not billions. A 2nd rep just recently asked me for a proposal.

A firm like SAP is not going to hop on my bandwagon without serious venture capital. Duh. But, what the process taught me was that there are solutions--and some of these solutions are available without spending millions.

How do I incorporate and integrate my own content--my songs, ebooks, blogs, etc.--with a venture like the Entertainment Cyberscope? Well, I start by asking the question, "How?"

Right now, I'm trying to decide if I should stay with one site or splinter off into multiple sites, in the quest for greater focus and clarity. Every blog, every ebook, and every other venture I've got going could easily have its own dedicated site.

But then, as you know, there are tons of amazing websites that manage to integrate seemingly disparate channels of content, without losing the overall focus, whatever that focus may be.

A database. A software. A web application. Somewhere in there lies the solutions.

Thank you so much from my heart and soul for the time and energy you've given me in this quest.

Once again, if I could, I would love to hire you because I have no doubt you could provide many of the solutions I'm seeking. Meanwhile...I'm on my own.

And I didn't even mention the implementation of a SEO/social media marketing strategy.

Jerry

[Worldwalker]

Off-color joke:

Spoiler:

An elderly European immigrant, upon deciding to retire, gave over management of his business to his son. Perhaps unfortunately, the business was a brothel. Even more unfortunately, the son was a philosopher with no interest in running any business, including that one. Instead of trying to bring in customers and increase business, he spent his time trying to get the working girls to read his favorite books of philosophy. Naturally, this led to problems and the business verged on bankruptcy. The father finally returned from his well-earned golfing vacation and looked at the mess his son had made. He immediately recognized the problem: "Son, my son, your problem is dis: you cannot put Descartes before de ..." well, even the protection of the Spoiler tag has its limits, so I'll leave the last word for you to fill in.

That's the problem here: the interchange of horse and cart. I've been building websites for a very long time, and in the process, I've learned a few things. Probably not as many as I should, but some have stuck hard. And one of those is that trying to build a website, let alone an online business, without a comprehensive plan is like trying to build a skyscraper without a plan. You can get up a few stories, but when you get too far, the whole thing will come crashing down around you.

What are you selling?

You're selling something. It might be content, it might be advertising space, it might be something else, but it's something. You need to determine exactly what it is that you're selling, in precise detail. Without that, you can't begin to decide how to go about selling it.

Who are you selling it to?

You have a target market. You need to know who they are. You need to know them so well you'd recognize them if they sat down next to you on the subway. "Everyone who likes music" is not a market. "Men aged from 18 to 30 who MP3 players" is closer. Refine it further if you can.

Why are they buying it from you?

This embodies two questions: Why are they buying it at all, and why specifically from you instead of someone else. Your own assumptions, by the way, are almost certainly invalid. It's like proofreading (and you still haven't fixed that typo, by the way): when you're too close to something, you see what you expect.

How do they know you have it?

In other words, marketing. This is at the very end of the list. You can't market something until you know what it is, who's buying it, and why. But you have to plan for it as soon as you do know those things. It won't just happen.

They're all simple questions, but their answers are not simple. Their answers are, however, absolutely essential. You need to know them before you can start building your website, your brand, and your business; if you don't, you're just flailing around going nowhere (or backwards). "You guys start writing code, and I'll go upstairs and find out what they want" is a joke, not a business development model. Those questions, and those answers, are part of the blueprint you need to start building.

Don't put Descartes in the wrong place.

[jerryflattum]

I fixed the typo. I'm usually anal about that so I'm surprised to have missed it.

The stuff you now discuss is very much a part of a business plan. I just started working on my plan a few days ago (using a free app I might add). Plus, I have a couple of excellent sources for guidance as I move forward.

I definitely have something to sell. But, I have what maybe could be characterized as a Target or WallMart issue. What does Wallmart sell? Everything. Shouldn't Wallmart have a separate website for groceries from clothing?

To be more specific, this is one of the reasons I'm debating over one site vs. multiple.
I'm selling original songs. I'm selling ebooks. I'm selling the Entertainment Cyberscope. It all falls under the umbrella of my company, Entertainment Cyberscope, Inc.

Yes, the content is different from each other. But, the purpose of the company is to provide music, writing and entertainment content online.

Dreamworks is not just a movie company. They have a music division.

All of this is acceptable when it comes to major entertainment conglomerates. But me, I'm just me. So when I mix music with books with web applications, people think that's crazy if not downright impossible.

There's no reason why I can't be diversified. And, I'm diversified whether you like it or not (not you, any detractor). But, I readily admit a need for clarity and focus. That's why I'm considering multiple sites.

But I'm also considering multiple sites for the simple reason I have the wrong Wordpress theme. It's column-based and columns are static. There's no space to put stuff (a real estate issue).

Maybe there's a better Theme that will allow me greater flexibility. Or, again, maybe I need multiple sites. This is a major issue for me.

But, it's not just one vs. multiple sites. It also depends of software and web applications. I need two databases, one for the production music library, one for the Entertainment Cyberscope-Portal.

But, given that whatever I think of seems to have a ready-made application solution, maybe there's one database solution that allows the building of multiple databases within one.

How about building a virtual world within a virtual world?

You understand web design better than me. That's a given.

But I do know that whatever my ideas are have either been done already or can be done. There's no reason why you can't sell marshmallows and vacuum cleaners under the same roof. But I'm not even that differentiated. It all falls under the umbrella of entertainment company.

There's a practical side to this whole conceptual thing as well. In one way, I'm simply trying to generate an income stream. I'm a songwriter and my recordings need to be re-recorded at master quality. This requires financing. I happen to be a freelance writer. So, I write articles, blogs and ebooks as a way to make money.

Give me an investor and I don't have to work multiple jobs. In a way, the Entertainment Cyberscope idea is really a part-time job. It's a glorified freelance writing gig.

I've been told I have to be successful in one area before I can be successful in another. That criticism has validity...in a linear world. I operate in a non-linear world, if you don't mind the pretention. It's really a mixed bag of catch-22s when it comes to generating an income. If I can sell a song first, great. Then I can use the money to finance my other ventures. If I can sell an eBook first, I can use whatever money I make to finance the completion of the recordings.

If I become a successful songwriter, then maybe I can call up Steven Spielberg and say hey, I got this idea for building a virtual world within a virtual world online. It's not an insane idea. It's very plausible. But I happen to be a nobody and a nobody has no credibility.

If I was a successful songwriter and could afford to pay you to implement my crazy ideas, you'd laugh a lot less.

The Internet is riddled with ideas that many believed were not possible. The Internet is about innovation. The Internet IS an innovation.

20 years ago, if I told you I had this idea for connecting all the computers in the world, well, need I say more.

I may have wandered off on a tirade here but I really don't need someone to tell what I can and can't do. I need someone to help me do it.

I'm not sure about your comments on the general marketing vs. niche marketing thing concerning music. The lines between genres are breaking down at an accelerated rate, thanx to the globalization of the Internet. Country vs. metal is old school. Old school models are still operational, but the point is, now there's a genre for Country/Metal.

The most successful songs are called "cross-over" hits. They don't fit in a single bag.

But that's another issue.

I fully appreciate the need to define what it is I'm selling and who I'm selling to. Again, I need help in accomplishing that goal.

I fully appreciate the importance of marketing. My little quip at the end of my last post was tongue in cheek. I said, "I haven't even mentioned marketing strategy."

I'm very holistic in how I operate. I don't think the design of the site is any less important than what SEO plugin I use or the quality of any given original song. It's all equally important. And integration, coherency and focus is critical.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by jerryflattum

I definitely have something to sell. But, I have what maybe could be characterized as a Target or WallMart issue. What does Wallmart sell? Everything. Shouldn't Wallmart have a separate website for groceries from clothing?

Wal-Mart sells physical goods: doorknobs, salad dressing, bookshelves, paper, whatever. It doesn't matter how many categories you break those goods down into, the bottom line is that Wal-Mart sells you a thing of some sort. You carry it home, or they mail it to you, but when all is said and done, you've got a turnip twaddler.

Take me as a counter-example: I sell consulting services. If you pay me, you don't get a a doorknob or a bookshelf, or even a turnip twaddler. You get the benefit of my expertise, and you get a very non-tangible website if you've contracted me to produce one of those, but there's nothing you can put in a bag.

In the case of the Wall Street Journal, they sell access to parts of their website. I've heard their paywall isn't doing all that well, financially-speaking, so they may not be selling it very well, or they may not have a big enough market that wants to buy it, but they're selling access to website content.

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about: not which individual items are you selling, but which kind of thing are you selling? You wouldn't sell ebooks the same way I sell website design work, and neither of us would sell them like the WSJ sells content access. But in order to sell our things properly, we need to first determine exactly what they are.

Yes, the content is different from each other. But, the purpose of the company is to provide music, writing and entertainment content online.

WRONG.

The purpose of the company is to make you money.

The means by which it makes you money is by selling music, ebooks, or whatever. But that's not the purpose. The purpose is to. make. you. money. Get that wrong and you're not building your skyscraper without a plan; you're building it with one side in a swamp.

So when I mix music with books with web applications, people think that's crazy if not downright impossible.

Lots of people do it. Anybody who thinks it's crazy or impossible does not know what they're talking about.

But, I readily admit a need for clarity and focus. That's why I'm considering multiple sites.

Multiple websites multiply your problems, not divide them. This is not something you want.

But I'm also considering multiple sites for the simple reason I have the wrong Wordpress theme. It's column-based and columns are static. There's no space to put stuff (a real estate issue).

Your website is an unholy mess. Picking a different template will not fix that problem. Learning website design -- not the mechanics of building, but the principles of design -- will start you off on dealing with that. Have you ordered the books I listed yet?

But, it's not just one vs. multiple sites. It also depends of software and web applications. I need two databases, one for the production music library, one for the Entertainment Cyberscope-Portal.

And the latter does ... what, exactly?

But, given that whatever I think of seems to have a ready-made application solution, maybe there's one database solution that allows the building of multiple databases within one.

It's called any database program. I'm personally fond of MySQL.

It's not an insane idea. It's very plausible. But I happen to be a nobody and a nobody has no credibility.

You do realize, I hope, that Steven Spielberg started out as a nobody. Bill Gates was a nobody. Mark Zuckerberg was a nobody. It's not whether you have any credibility; it's whether your idea has credibility -- and specifically, whether your idea looks like it's going to make a bunch of money for anyone who gets involved.

Read one of my personal favorite xkcd comics here. Take it to heart. Modern capitalism is that ruthlessly profit-focused. If you have a good enough idea, and the ability to implement it, someone will be interested even if you're Mickey Mouse because it can make them money.

If I was a successful songwriter and could afford to pay you to implement my crazy ideas, you'd laugh a lot less.

I seriously considered demanding an apology for that, but I decided you probably don't realize how much you just insulted me.

I am not for sale.

If I laugh at your ideas, it is not because you're not paying me; it's because your ideas are laughable.

And we'll end this line of discussion now before steam starts to come out of my ears.

20 years ago, if I told you I had this idea for connecting all the computers in the world, well, need I say more.

20 years ago was 11 years after my first newsgroup post on ARPAnet, which is what the Internet was first called. So I would have told you "no big deal, it's been done."

I may have wandered off on a tirade here but I really don't need someone to tell what I can and can't do. I need someone to help me do it.

If you want my professional advice -- and you're getting a fair bit of it, and for free -- you can just stifle yourself and listen, and say "Yes, Worldwalker, thank you, Worldwalker." If you only want to go staggering off in random directions like a drunken sailor, then don't bother asking for advice, just buy a copy of E-Commerce for Dummies and have at it.

The most successful songs are called "cross-over" hits. They don't fit in a single bag.

But they're songs delivered electronically, not doorknobs delivered by UPS. That's the difference I'm talking about.

I fully appreciate the need to define what it is I'm selling and who I'm selling to. Again, I need help in accomplishing that goal.

I'm going to be brutally frank here:

If you need help figuring out what you're selling and who you're selling to, you do not have a product. You do not have customers. You have a hobby. You are not going to get people to give you money for your hobby, nor can anyone else tell you how to get them to give you money. You, and you alone, know what your products are and who your customers are. You need to be a lot further advanced than you are now before you even begin to start plotting out an online business. You're not ready to do this yet. Say to yourself "Descartes. Descartes. Descartes."

I'm very holistic in how I operate. I don't think the design of the site is any less important than what SEO plugin I use or the quality of any given original song. It's all equally important. And integration, coherency and focus is critical.

Most of the time, "everything is equally important" comes out in practice to "everything is equally unimportant."

To the devil with the details. They're just that: details. You need to focus on structure first, and the details can come later. Your site could be black text on a white background and sell product hand over fist if you have "heroin content", and it could be the best website in the world and do nothing but burn bandwidth if you don't have something people want to buy, or the people who might buy it aren't going there. The quality of the songs matters, and it matters a lot. I'm not going to buy a crappy song. I'll buy a good song from a crappy website, but I will not buy a crappy song from any kind of website, no matter how holistic it claims to be.

You can't just flounder around and expect everything to work. Nor can you expect other people to put in thousands of dollars worth of unpaid work, to your exact specs, and do your job for you. The Hollywood enthusiasm isn't impressing anyone; you're starting to look like a Popeil pitchman. "But wait -- there's more!"

If you want this to work, then quit spending so much time defending the way you're (not) doing things and pay attention to what the experts are telling you about the way you should be doing things.

Also, go to Amazon right now and order those books. You need to read them.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Quote: So when I mix music with books with web applications, peopl think that's crazy if not downright impossible.

Lots of people do it. Anybody who thinks it's crazy or impossible does not know what they're talking about.

I agree. Not crazy, nor impossible, nor new at all. Just laughably silly.

But that's just my old black&white view coming in face of progress. There's clearly a market of desperate people in need for virtual realities like Second Life or people who enjoy reading their mistery fiction through flashing text dancing all over the screen interspeced with nature photos and some peruvian flute soothing in the background...

And sorry for my rudeness, can't help with my troll nature there.

[mtravellerh]

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[LCF]

Originally Posted by jerryflattum

LCF: I think you provided some great info only it's a bit over my head. I didn't even know there was a dedicated PDF printer, or, do you mean any printer?

Anyway, someone else suggested the Calibre system and without knowing a thing yet other than having watched the demo video, it looks like Calibre can do just about anything I (you/we) want to do with ebooks.

PDF printer is any program that simulates a real printer but "prints" PDF files.

Calibre rocks!

Good luck with the project!

[altworld]

As a Graphic and Web Designer by trade I have to say this.

For the love of god do not set your PDF file to print graphics at 1200dpi, you will end up with a huge file that will take an age to download and render on most screens. Plus would take the average office printer a very long time to print. There is a direct colleration between size of graphics and the size of the PDF file, optimal use for PDF is to try to keep it under 1MB for web downloads. Unless of course you have a very understand webhost over bandwidth usage (and even unlimited does have a cap).

Couple of rules of thumb about web graphics.

Graphics displayed on a computer screen do not need to be any more 72dpi, and very rarely need to be wider than 640px unless your running a full screen banner image then up 1000px will fill out most screens. Why 72dpi? Screen resolutions work at that and it gives you the optimal size and graphic quality for most web applications.

When you do traditional printing you can actually get away with 72dpi with BW printing, but the recommended dpi is a minimal 150, at best you should aim for 300dpi. Keep in mind the medium your printing on, 1200dpi? Your not doing a billboard!

Although I did skim through most of this thread, I don't really understand exactly what you are doing. An interactive eBook is what I got out of this. Not sure if a lot of the current tech in eReaders are up to this as this all reads as a huge web application, but multiple formats is a good place to start.

For that if someone else can do the heavy lifting for you for a backend fee, then let them.

Beyond that good luck, and I hope you discover what you really want to do.
Arigato,
Nick Davis

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by LCF

PDF printer is any program that simulates a real printer but "prints" PDF files....

I believe you're speaking of the way I can choose "PDF" as my printer when I go to print, for example, an online receipt and instead of physically printing the receipt, it generates a PDF file on my hard drive with whatever title I choose to give it. Is my understanding correct?